A reader asks, “I have a question regarding Taxation on withdrawal of SIP mutual fund units. Can you throw some light on how the units would be taxed?” First, it must be understood that the SIP is just an automated way of buying mutual funds units each month (typically). However you buy mutual fund units…
Continue reading →Two readers recently asked us similar questions. One asked, “Is it possible for the Indian stock market to again go through 10 years of poor returns?” The reference is to the ten years of a sideways market after the Harshad Mehta scandal broke. For details, see: (a) Sensex at 50,000 & lessons from the 42-year journey (b) Sensex…
Continue reading →Three readers sent us similar requests over the past couple of weeks. One wanted to know if it is worth booking Rs. 1 lakh capital gains from equity or equity mutual funds each year to lower LTCG tax. Another wanted us to illustrate how to compute the necessary units for such an exercise. Yet another…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “Sir, my boyfriend and I are about to get married. Both of us want to have children. Can you please write an article on how to prepare for parenthood financially?” Although I welcome and admire it, most people may dislike this line of thinking. For them, childbirth is a gift and should…
Continue reading →This article compares my stock portfolio with an equivalent investment in a Nifty index fund and the Nifty 100 Low Volatility 30 TR index. We post this comparison each month. Before we begin, new readers need to appreciate the context of these investments. I started direct equity investing only after achieving a comfortable level of…
Continue reading →Here is a list of things to do after you buy a health insurance policy. These simple steps would aid premium payment, claim application and hospitalization. This post is a companion piece: Do not forget these steps after buying a term insurance policy! 1. Understand claim procedures Whether cashless or reimbursement, insurers must be immediately intimated…
Continue reading →A reader writes, “I am a happy beneficiary of robo template, FB group subscription and tactical buy sheets among hundreds of articles and video posts. Thank you. I have started saving for education expenses for my 2-year-old twins. In essence, a goal that is 14 years away”. “For the debt component, I had narrowed down…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “I recently read your review of Tata Nifty Midcap 150 Momentum 50 Index Fund. I wondered if tactical entry and exit with your double-moving average market timing model will provide better results than systematic investing with a momentum index fund. Can you please backtest this?” We can certainly backtest it, but India’s…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “One common trend I see in your analysis is that the active MFs are always considered against the benchmark indices and not index funds themselves. Why are active mutual fund returns compared with TRI (total return indices) and not index fund returns?” “Also, since index fund investment recommendation is limited only to…
Continue reading →In this article, we discuss a set of questions sent by a reader about a 25-year investment duration. Among these, he wishes to know how much should be allocated to small cap mutual funds. We address them in the order received. For a 25-year retirement goal, what will be your allocation percentage towards equity, gold…
Continue reading →A reader asks, “Which among the following two has higher credit risk? 1. Gilt fund (actively managed) or 2. FD in a nationalized bank? I need to choose one for a 10-year goal for the debt portion”. On the face of it, this might look like a trivial question to at least experienced investors. However,…
Continue reading →We analyse the performance of multi-asset mutual funds in this article. This category is only four years old introduced by SEBI in 2018 with the re-categorization of mutual funds. Therefore we shall only look at the last 1,2,3, and 4-year trailing returns of multi-asset funds. According to SEBI, a multi-asset fund invests in at least three…
Continue reading →This is a debt mutual fund screener for fund selection, fund portfolio tracking and learning. It also includes hybrid funds that invest in bonds. It will satisfy investors who wish to invest in money market funds, banking and PSU funds etc. The credit quality of the bonds in the portfolio and the bond maturity profile…
Continue reading →We review the performance consistency of SBI Pension Fund Scheme E – NPS TIER I measured against Nifty 50 TRI and UTI Nifty 50 TRI. The scheme was launched in June 2009 and currently has an AUM of little over Rs. nine thousand crores. Only the scheme from HDFC Pension has a higher AUM (in…
Continue reading →This article analyses the historical Nifty 50 portfolio over the last ten years (Oct 2012 to Sep 2022). This data is not available or free on the NSE website, so we use the portfolio history of Nifty BeES ETF as a proxy. Eighty-four entities have been part o the Nifty 50 over the last ten…
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